Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
Comrade Kennedy Iyere, Convener of the Civil Society Committee For Anti-Fraud Election Security (CISCAES), a well-known humanitarian activist, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to hold a transparent, fair, and credible election free of fear or favor ahead of the Osun 2022 Gubernatorial election.
As a frontline civil society organization fighting electoral fraud, CISCAES also warned INEC not to allow a repeat of the landscape vote-buying seen in the recently concluded Ekiti guber-poll.
The importance of ensuring that the BVAS technology does not act fraudulently or manipulatedly, which could result in vote-rigging as well as election conspiracy capable of jeopardizing the election’s success, was emphasized in a statement signed by the Convener, Comrade Kennedy Iyere.
‘INEC should not favor the powers that be,’ he says, echoing widespread speculation. Any attempt to rig the “Osun 2022 Guber-Poll” could spark an anti-INEC protest, he warned, prompting disgruntled Nigerians to “unconditionally demand the immediate removal of Mahmoud Yakaubu as National Chairman of INEC.”
He claimed that the “Osun 2018 guber-poll” was declared inconclusive because the Returning Officer at the time, Prof Joseph Fuwape, acted on a phone call instructing him to declare the election inconclusive. “It was a command from on high, from the powers that be,” he explained.
Comrade Iyere challenged Prof Mahmoud Yakubu and INEC officials to redeem themselves from their disgraceful reputation in 2018 by truncating the credible process of the “Osun 2018 Guber-Poll,” claiming that the election was clearly rigged.
He did, however, caution INEC not to repeat the mistake in 2022.
